You Think The Situation In The United States Is So Different From Egypt? Think Again.
Thirty years ago, after Sadat's assassination, the Egyptian government declared a "state of emergency" which has been maintained since then, with the Egyptian privileged minority establishing a tight grip on the population by way of the military supporting a dictatorial puppet government- personified in Mubarak. And the government-controlled media convinced the people of Egypt that they could do nothing while the wealth of the nation was channelled to the plutocracy and to their military and political supporters, and while the people were reduced to abject poverty and their political rights and human dignity were wrenched away from them.
Here in the United States, our government has declared a virtual state of emergency since 9-11. That has been the pretext for reducing the civil rights of Americans through ploys like the Patriot Act. Steadily since 9-11 privacy rights and judicial rights of Americans have been diminished while the power of the military-industrial complex and their bank-funders has been vastly increased. Americans are quickly being divested of their political inheritance while the power of the financial and corporate elite is on the ascendance. And the power of the elite is devotedly served by their poltical puppets, whom we vote into office time and time again.
Yes, how lucky we are that a situation such as that in Egypt does not exist in the United States! Really? Sorry, but if we allow ourselves that kind of delusory thought we will have made a grave mistake, a lethal mistake.
This nation- yes, the United States, has for decades been developing into a neo-feudal dictatorship of wealth; and its vaunted democracy a ridiculous facade. How can there possibly be democracy in a nation where genuine choice is non-existent, non-existent to the people, that is.
The American people have for years been continually been presented with the "choice" of voting for one corporately-controlled puppet over another. And whoever the choice is, Republican or Democrat, they are invariably the servant of Wall Street and the major banks and corporations, including of course the war-for-profit industries which lobby to keep us in a state of permanent warfare.
That's the situation, whether we admit it or not and whether we like it or not.
And the American people? Really so different from the people of Egypt? In the United States today approximately 400 extravagantly wealthy individuals hold monetary assets which are equivalent to the assets of half the population of the country- about 150 million Americans. The greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of the planet has taken place in this country. As Michael Moore has pointed out so aptly, this nation isn't broke- It's just that a handful of people are holding all the money. And it was this privileged elite which brought about the current economic crisis through criminally fraudulent financial schemes which are destroying the middle class and burying the poor. And this criminal clique, through their puppet politicians, forced the American people to bail them out from the consequences of their crimes with the threat of crashing the economy if Americans failed to oblige them. Oh, and speaking of their crimes, has Mr. Obama prosecuted even one of them? Take a look at the resulting unemployment rate. Take a look at the hundreds of thousands of Americans forced out of their homes by the government-bailed out banks. Take a look at the outrageous credit-interest rates Americans are still paying. And on and on and on. No, no essential difference. This country is totally owned and ruled by a tiny fraction of its population which controls most of the politicians and the media, a media which feeds the American public whatever hype, whatever propaganda, whatever lies and rationalizations the elite want them to consume. This is what our "democracy" has become.
Mr. Matthews of MSNBC previewed an upcoming laudatory documentary on one William Jefferson Clinton last night, hailing him as "President of the World." Clinton, during the last couple of years of his presidency, handed over the nation to the banks and major corporations, deregulating them and giving them free reign to forever manipulate the American people for maximum profit. Clinton made us and our children and grandchildren virtual economic slaves to the corporate elite. Clinton the perfect puppet. What a glorious legacy.
This betrayal of the American people was brought to a pinnacle by George W. Bush and is now being surreptitiously continued by Barack Obama and by Congress and the courts. Obama has run a government of special interests, more particularly Wall-Street and corporate interest, since day one, though he cloaks himself in the robe of national "savior." He is a hustler and a hypocrite and the servant of the plutocracy. And he was primed to be that before he ever began his presidential campaign. Obama's supporters were duped. He is a disaster to this nation.
If we continue to allow ourselves to be fooled and manipulated by these jackals, then we are allowing our nation to be destroyed to serve the power-mania and greed of the few.
I pray to God that we will come to our senses.
So different from Egypt? Emerge from the delusion.